Despite the bitter cold, people were streaming into St Macartan's Hall in the middle of Monaghan town from about 12.45 p.m. There were some men among them, but most were women, a few accompanied by children. By 1 p.m. there was standing room only. They had come for information, for advice, to express their concern about the handling of the outbreak, and to show solidarity with the families already stricken by the dreaded meningitis.
Mary McBride had kept her children out of school yesterday after hearing of the outbreak. She said she could not get through to the health board on Tuesday and had come to the meeting for information. Ann Snowden wanted more information on how to recognise the symptoms. She also wanted reassurance. The meeting had been called at the request of the Mullaghmatt and Cortalvin Residents' Association, where the boys who contracted the disease live. It was chaired by Dr Rosaleen Corcoran, Director of Public Health for the North Eastern Health Board, and addressed by Ms Avril Ivory, of the Meningitis Research Foundation, Dr Declan Bedford, Specialist in Public Health Medicine, and Dr Imelda Lynskey, who treated the boys and their families.
Local GPs, the matron of Monaghan General Hospital and Mr Chris Hoey, General Manager of the Cavan-Monaghan Hospital Group, who organised the meeting, were on the platform to answer questions.
Dr Corcoran told the meeting that two boys had been admitted to Monaghan General Hospital with meningitis, one of whom had died. The other was critically ill in Dublin. Two more were under observation.
A helpline had been set up to provide information and reassurance to the public, she said. Over 100 people contacted it in its first day of operation.
Many people asked whether they should send their children to school. Others were concerned about contact with those who were ill.
Ms Ivory told the meeting that meningitis was not a highly infectious disease. "The meningococcal bacterium is not very hardy," she said. "It only survives outside the body for about two seconds." It was therefore transmitted by direct contact like coughing, sneezing or kissing.
Ms Ivory said that literature was being distributed to all schools and it was also distributed at the meeting, describing the symptoms. Mr Malachy Toal of the residents' association welcomed the meeting and thanked Mr Hoey for bringing the speakers together and the local TD, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain, for helping with the organisation. Many of those present wanted to know if they should send their children to school. Dr Bedford said that the risk at school was no greater than anywhere else.
There was no need to close schools, he insisted, or to keep children away from school. "These cases came in the Christmas period when children were out of school," he added. But not everyone was happy with this.
"I am a mother and grandmother. I have a daughter a teacher in a school," said Mrs Dympna Traynor. "Prevention is better than cure. Close all the schools for a month, until this subsides." There was loud applause.
"I am a parent myself," said Dr Bedford. "In my child's school last year we had a case of meningitis. I continued sending my child to school. All the evidence from the States and England is that there is no increased risk in schools." In the body of the hall, Mr Owen Smith stood up and said he and others first became aware of the outbreak when asked at Mass on Tuesday morning to pray for a young fellow. By about 1 p.m. they heard he had meningococcal meningitis.
"There is a degree of concern at the initial response of the health board," he said. "They issued a statement at 6 o'clock. We would like to be assured there is a structure in place so that there can be a prompt response."
Again there was loud applause. Dr Corcoran said the health board's first response was a clinical one, and that it did not want to give out information that might later prove not to be accurate. "Within hours of the patient being diagnosed we did respond," she said, adding: "We are here to get feedback."
They got plenty of feedback: concern about possible delays in issuing information, suggestions about improving the helpline and separating it from the main hospital number.
But overall, the meeting was calm and serious, and represented an unusually open exchange of ideas between public health officials and members of the public.